IMPACT MADE
TFC has little trouble putting down 401 rivals
MONTREAL — The ribald side of the rivalry began early Sunday afternoon at a sold-out Saputo Stadium.
As is their way, the 300 or so vocal TFC supporters took residence in the north end stands and in between chants unfurled a banner proclaiming: “Today’s forecast, 17 points clear ... still.”
Nothing like rubbing it in for the first of three regular-season renewals of the 401 Derby between the Reds and the Montreal Impact.
Yes, Toronto was that much better coming into this — and improved the margin to 20 points after a 3-1 win over an Impact team battling for its playoff life in the later stages of this Major League Soccer season.
Sebastian Giovinco led the way for Toronto with a pair of goals — opening the scoring in the 41st minute with a beauty of a free kick — and putting the Impact away in the 93rd, a minute after the rivals had pulled to within one.
With the win, Toronto improved to a franchiserecord 56 points and is the runaway leader to win the Supporter’s Shield, honouring the best regular-season team in the MLS for the first time in club history. Given it hasn’t lost in nine games, with seven contests remaining the MLS single-season record of 68 is also well within reach.
“Obviously we’re giving everything to try to win the Sup- porters’ Shield and do it as quickly and as dominantly as possible,” TFC captain Michael Bradley said. “But obviously games against Montreal always carry a little bit of extra weight, there’s no two ways about it.
“The rivalry has really grown over the last year and a half or so. When you play big games against your rival, with so much on the line, it’s only going to go one way. It’s exciting for the league and exciting for football in North America and in Canada ... Some of the spectacle that the people have been treated to over the past year and a half have been incredible.”
As the teams have come to know in their brief but brewing rivalry — truthfully one of the better in Canadian professional sports — the standings normally mean very little when the two meet.
The past performances, be they in regular season, Cana- dian championships or playoff meetings, have been fuelled by the great equalizer of emotion. Well, the emotion was definitely in place in front of a sellout crowd of 20,801 on Sunday, but perhaps the class advantage for Toronto is a little too steep this year.
TFC coach Greg Vanney sees a driven group that insists on getting better by the week, even as the long MLS season drags on. And their dominant play over the summer months has proven it to be so.
“The accomplishment that I’m most proud of is the one nobody sees and is where our group is in terms of our locker room and in terms of how they show up to work every day,” Vanney said. “Their attention to wanting to get better and wanting to continue to win.”
The Reds are now nine points clear of NYCFC in the race for the Supporter’s Shield while they kept Montreal just outside of the playoff race by snapping its fourgame winning streak. With a bye week for an international break, it’s time to recharge for the stretch run.
The atmosphere at Saputo Stadium was electric from the outset, complete with the occasional scrap in the stands. After taking the 1-0 lead into the half-time break, Toronto seized the opportunity with Jozy Altidore delivering nice tap-in goal in the 52nd minute, easily burying a clever cross from Marky Delgado.
The Impact’s lone goal came from Ignacio Piatti in added time, but was essentially nullified less than a minute later when Giovanco buried his second of the game to make the final 3-1.
With the atmosphere on a stunner of a late summer afternoon, this is clearly a rivalry other sports franchises in Canada could only hope to capitalize and run with. Hockey’s Battle of Ontario and Battle of Alberta have seen better days, though the resurgence of the Leafs and Oilers may change that.
Part of what smells like a contrived “Heineken Rivalry Week” in the MLS, there was nothing phoney about this one, however. The rivalry is on.
The Toronto contingent may have been drowned out at times, but they made their presence known from start to finish. During O Canada they were at full throat, a half verse ahead of the anthem singer and en anglais, of course.
Out in front, just like the team on their side of the 401 Derby was for the majority of the game.